The Eyre Affair (2001) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 4 stars

“FUN. Mixing literature and reality? Enough to make an English major giddy. And Fforde threw in such things as time travel, plasma guns, vampires, and Will-Speak machines for good measure. Making waves in creativity, and a pleasure to read.”

• Rated 1 stars

“One of those books that I should have loved, based on its premise, but I just couldn't get into the book at all. It was an easy read, but the what if scenario described in the book ( a broken United Kingdom, still fighting a war in Crimea, plus a parallel world where literature becomes an issue of public safety) never convinced me. It was funny, and had some good one liners but, not a book or a series of books I will go back to.”

• Rated 5 stars

“This is the first novel in the Thursday Next series. It's a brilliant novel. I don't know how anyone could come up with a story like this. I hardly know in what genre this book should be categorised, so I'll just not try to categorise it at all. This book is quite surreal, but don't let that put you off if you don't think you'll like it, because you probably will.

Something I love about Fforde's style is that he doesn't try to explain everyting. It's not that this book is really difficult to follow, it's more that Fforde seems to expect a certain power of imagination in his readers, which works well for me and I think most readers are probably up to the challenge, even if they've never tried before. There are a lot of references to literary classics in this book and I suppose I must have missed some. I'm Dutch, so I didn't grow up with British literature. I have read Jane Eyre, which is the most important reference in this book, when I was in secondary school. I do think that The Eyre Affair is more fun to read after you've read Jane Eyre, otherwise it might be bit difficult to understand.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Oh what fun and intrigue. Gail recommended this author and I was not familiar with the series. Mr. Rochester coming to life. What a great idea. The bonus of time traveling as well. Good, evil, and novel talk.

I really had fun with this.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Clever and witty, it takes place in a future England where the Crimean War has yet to end and people are entering classice literature and killing the characters. Can Thursday save Jane Eyre before it's too late? A very fun and well-written read.”

• Rated 1 stars

“This book dragged for me. I felt like it took forever to get anywhere.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Looking forward to reading the next in this series.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Very unusual premise that was well written”

• Rated 5 stars

“I am SO glad that I decided to read this. I don't remember who recommended it but thank you, thank you, thank you!! Wonderful stoy, wonderful characters--I loved everything about it. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!!”

• Rated 4 stars

“I loved this book. Such an interesting premise; to be able to travel into books and tamper with the endings. Or even to just go observe, and meet some of your favorite characters. I could spend the rest of my life doing that.”